After All These Years
by ThePeridotRanger
Summary: This is the story of how Sam and the rest of the surviving members of the Endurance would react to Croft Manor being blown up in Tomb Raider: Underworld.
1. The Fire

**A/N: OK so I'll be deleting my unfinished stories. They will never be finished, so I'm going to just delete them. If someone wants to take over go ahead, but I won't be writing A New Kind of Mystery or The Truth of Prince Charming. Also by the time this story is out it will be completely written to ensure that I don't put out another unfinished story.**

Chapter 1: The Fire

The news was playing in Sam Nishimura's apartment in New York City as she waited for the pizza she ordered to arrive. Earlier she had been in a video chat with her old friends Reyes and Jonah. They were catching up with each other, as they did every other month. Reyes's daughter had graduated from college and was now trying to be an archeologist, it seemed that the story of her mother's adventure had inspired her to learn more about the world. There was an important person missing from their bi-monthly meetings, her best friend from college, Lara Croft. These days Lara was busy being a big time archeologist, everyone knew her name. Of course they did she found Atlantis and Excalibur, among other things. After they shipwrecked on Yamatai ten years ago, Lara changed, she was more daring, and this fame she found came with a price. Every time she left to go find something, there was no guarantee that she would return and even though Sam had lost contact with her old friend, she still checked up on her through the news to make sure she was still alive.

The news then caught her attention, "Breaking news, there was an explosion at Croft Manor earlier this evening. One reported casualty. We do not know who it is at this point or how the explosion happened. More information will come when available."

Sam was frozen in shock. Croft Manor blown up? One casualty? She knew that Lara had a team that lived in the Manor with her and Winston, her butler, but there was a chance that that one casualty was Lara. She heard her phone buzz, it was the group message she was in with Reyes and Jonah. _I bought us all plane tickets to England. Go to your nearest airport fast._ Apparently Reyes had also been watching the news.

Sam quickly packed some clothes and a toothbrush and printed out the plane ticket Reyes sent to her. It was time to see her college roommate again in 10 years, but whether or not Lara was alive was still up in the air.


	2. On the Plane to England

Chapter 2: On the Plane to England

On the plane Sam had a hard time keeping still. Her best friend could be hurt or worse. Yeah even after 10 years of not speaking Sam still considered Lara her best friend even if Lara didn't. She stared out the window, her leg bouncing up and down as the plane soared upwards then towards England. Sam couldn't help but wonder what she would do if she learned that Lara had died. It had been so long since she had seen the British woman that she only knew she would feel sadness. Other than that, would she cry, get angry? Only time would tell how she would react.

Lara's parents were famous archeologists. Her father was known for chasing after fairy tales as if they were real. He looked for things like Atlantis and Excalibur, both of which were found by Lara. This had started after the death of his wife, he believed it to have been caused by the supernatural. Of course at the time people still believed these things to be myth and even Lara thought of her father as crazy. After Yamatai Lara realized that her father was right about magic being real and deeply regretted her doubt in him. Lord Richard Croft's reputation was ruined by his chasing the mythical and magical even after his suicide, even though Lara had always told Sam that she had doubts about the truth of that. The archeologist was convinced that her father was murdered.

The plane was now flying steadily and Sam saw the seatbelt light turn off. She thought to how Reyes's and Jonah's flights were going. She could imagine Jonah's huge build squished into a plane seat so worried about Lara that he is unable to think of anything else. The two had become fast friends on the Endurance. Jonah even gave Lara the nickname "Little Bird". The fisherman was an incredible cook and his cooking reminded her of Winston's. Jonah had a big heart and Sam knew he still thought of Lara as a little sister, even after all these years.

Reyes was a different story. She still cared about Lara enough to buy plane tickets for Jonah, Sam and herself to fly out to England to check up on their old friend. Reyes and Lara's relationship was greatly strained by the death of Conrad Roth. He was an old family friend of the Crofts and he was dating Reyes in secret. Roth was like a father to Lara after her own had died so it wasn't too surprising that he sacrifice his own life for hers on Yamatai. This made Reyes angry, she blamed Lara for Roth's death for months, but she did eventually realize that it was Roth's own fault not Lara's.

Sam stared out the window of the plane as she thought about the surviving crew members of the S. S. Endurance. She closed her eyes and silently prayed to every god she could think of that her friend was still alive.


	3. Highway to Hell

**I apologies that I had to republish this chapter. For some reason didn't want to keep my paragraphs separate. Hopefully that won't happen again.**

Chapter 3: Highway to Hell

Sam, Reyes and Jonah arrived in London within a couple hours of each other. Once all together, they called a cab and split the cost to get them to the Croft Manor in Surrey. The ride there was very quiet, the three friends were nervous. They didn't want to find out about Lara's death through the news, but she hadn't kept in touch with any of them after Yamatai.

Once they had all gotten to their respective homes, Lara immediately threw herself into proving her dad was right about everything. She never answered any of their texts or calls, the only reason they knew she was still alive was her constant presence on the news. Sam was confused as to why her best friend so suddenly decided that she didn't want to be friends anymore. She ended up theorizing that Lara having to save Sam so much on Yamatai and risk her life for her that Sam wasn't worth being a friend with. Sam realized just how weak she was on that dreadful island. She was useless when Lara was getting beat up by Mathias's thugs and then she didn't listen to Lara's distrust of Dr. Wittman and got captured a second time. Lara had to fight through a whole army to get to her and Sam could do nothing to lessen her friend's burden.

No one had realized how bad of a beating Lara had taken on Yamatai until she passed out on the freighter that brought them back to Japan. The doctors at the hospital had told them that they were surprised that she was still alive, but Sam always knew that Lara was a survivor. She had only Roth and Winston to help her as she grew up, Winston was very professional about it and Roth would often take her to dangerous places. Lara was stuck in a coma for a couple of weeks and when she woke up she got herself back to England without saying goodbye to anyone.

Sam thought about her friend's adventures and realized, danger runs in the Croft family they were drawn to it and it always killed them in the end. She heard the stories of Lara's parents and grandparents, and could only assume that the Crofts had been adventurers for generations. This made her even more nervous for Lara's safety, what if this explosion was what finally killed Lara, similar to what that plane crash did to her mother.

"We're here, but this place blew up not too long ago. No one is here anymore. If you're looking for Lady Croft I can take you to the hotel she is staying at." Instead of questioning where the cabbie got the information on where Lara was staying, Sam agreed to have him take them to the nearby hotel. It was probably leaked to the press by some nosey person who didn't know how to mind their own business, but it worked out for the best, at least for Sam, Reyes and Jonah.

A few minutes later they arrived at the hotel, it was nothing special, Lara definitely could have afforded a better place, but she probably wanted it to be private. "You ready Sam?" Jonah asked when he noticed Sam was still standing where the cab had been staring at the hotel.

"Of course Jonah. I'm just worried about what we will find." Sam answered him. It was true, as she saw it, either they learn that Lara was dead or they find Lara and she tells them to go away and she never wants to see them again. Whatever happened Sam's heart was going to break all over again, she was going to lose her best friend once and for all.

Sam thought back to the time her and Lara met. _It was move-in day for freshmen at the College of London. Sam walked into her dorm room to find one side already set up, her roommate had arrived before her. Disappointment filled her when she realized that her roommate was not in the room. Where is she? She must have arrived hours ago and got tired of waiting for me. She had thought, unpacking her things. Sam had traveled a long way, all the way from New York City so she was alone, her parents were too busy to come._

 _Hours later she was finally finished and collapsed on her bed. The door opened to reveal a toned woman about her age. The woman was average height, sun-kissed skin, brown eyes and hair the same color pulled back into a ponytail. "Oh! You must be my roommate. I'm Sam Nishimura, film major." Sam told the woman who entered the room._

 _"_ _Lara Croft, I'm majoring in anthropology." The woman, Lara, answered. Seeing the confusion on Sam's face she continued, "I'm studying to be an archeologist." Sam smiled, this must mean she likes adventure, she thought, this year was going to be amazing._

 _Sam soon found out that as much as Lara did like adventure, it was only if it involved history. Lara wasn't one for drinking and partying opting to stay in and study instead of going out with her roommate. Despite this Sam and Lara grew to be inseparable and learned everything about each other by the end of their first semester._

Sam smiled at the memory as she walked up to the desk attendant and asked, "We're looking for Lara Croft. Can you tell us what room she is in?"

"Sorry I'm not allowed to give out that information." Replied the attendant. Sam was about to retaliate, she would never give up on finding Lara when she heard someone with an English accent behind her say, "Samantha Nishimura? It's been a while."


	4. Finding Lara Croft

**All right so, I don't have a set schedule for this. It's basically whenever I feel is best, but it will be (or at least I hope) 1 chapter per week. It may not happen especially since I am getting close to finals week and doing my jury. We'll see how this goes. I also want to apologies for this being short, it's been a crazy week.**

Chapter 4: Finding Lara Croft

"Samantha Nishimura? It's been a while." Sam turned to where the voice came from and saw thin, elderly man wearing a butler's outfit.

"Winston? Thank goodness you're OK! Where's Lara?" Sam spoke quickly as soon as she realized who she was talking to. Winston was the Croft family's butler. He helped Lara's grandparents take care of her father and her parents take care of her. He was especially helpful after Richard Croft's suicide. He was Lara's guardian and did all the things parents do. Yet, he somehow managed to maintain the aloofness of a butler, although on a number of occasions Sam had caught him looking at Lara with fatherly love and pride.

Sam had first met Winston during winter break her freshman year of college. She didn't want to go back to her parents for Christmas, so Lara had offered her to stay in the Croft Manor. At first she was shocked to see the size of the manor, Lara had told her that it had been in her family for years. Sam wondered what the ancient Crofts did to deserve such a wonderful house. When they got to the entrance, the large door was opened by the butler. He was nothing but kind to Sam during her stay in the Croft Manor.

Sam always loved Winston's relationship with Lara. It was how a father and daughter were supposed to be. The old man had never had his own kids, so the Croft family was his family. He praised Lara for her success and lectured her when she did wrong, he clearly cared about Lara.

Now it has been fourteen years since they met and Winston still remembers Sam. "I'm sorry Miss. Nishimura." he told her and immediately the worst case scenario went through her head. Lara was dead. That explosion is what finally killed the adventurer. Her thoughts were cut short by Winston continuing, "Lady Croft just left for Mexico about an hour ago. I'm afraid you've missed her, but I can take you too our suite. We will be in contact with her shortly"

Sam felt a huge wave of relief, Lara was still alive, but why was she in Mexico? Sam, Reyes, and Jonah agreed to follow Winston and entered the suite to find a dark skinned man sitting behind a computer saying, "Lara I don't know how you can be out there with what happed to Alister."

The she heard Lara's voice through the screen, "I already figured out that it was Natla and Amanda who sent that doppelganger to blow up the manor. Mexico is my best lead to stop their plans Zip." Sam stepped in front of the screen to see Lara's face, which now bore a look of surprise. The two looked at each other.

"Sam?"

"Lara!"


	5. The Explosion

Chapter 5: The Explosion

"Sam?"

"Lara!"

The two stared at each other, not sure what to do. After all, what do you say to your best friend you haven't seen in 10 years. Zip was the one to break the silence. "You are you three?" he yelled addressing Sam, Reyes and Jonah, "Winston get them outta here right now."

"They're old friends of mine," Lara told Zip, "they can stay if they wish." Sam looked at the computer in surprise. Lara still considered them friends? She was sure the English archeologist hated her. This revelation infuriated Sam, if Lara still considered them her friends why has she refused to speak with her. All of a sudden 10 years of anger and frustration that Sam was holding back came out.

"What do you mean, old friends?" Sam growled and everyone turned towards her in surprise. "Don't you mean ex-friends? The people you went through literal Hell with and then decided you never wanted to speak to again?" Sam felt the rage building up, she was going to explode and there was nothing she could do about it, Lara just infuriated her. So she let herself explode, "How DARE you call me your friend after 10 years of silence. I thought you HATED me for what happened on Yamatai, but now I realize you had no reason to just cut contact with us."

"I have my reasons, Sam." That was Lara's response? That was the answer she gave Sam for the 10 years they spent apart.

"NO!" Sam screamed at the top of her lungs, "We were roommates in college, Lara, we were _BEST FRIENDS._ This is how you treat your best friend, the person who helped you study for finals and made sure you took care of yourself for 4 years. _The person you risked your life for on multiple occasions on Yamatai?_ " Sam saw the saddened and ashamed look on Lara's face, but it didn't deter her from continuing her rant. "Give us a reason Lara, a real one. We'll leave if you want, we'll never bother you again. You almost died on Yamatai. Those few weeks you were in the hospital after we got back were the scariest few weeks of my life."

"Of all our lives." Reyes interjected. I nodded and continued, "We care about you Lara. It's why we're here, we heard what happened to the manor and came rushing to England to make sure you're OK."

"Little bird, I know Yamatai changed you, it changed all of us. We need you, we'll always need you to be our friend. I can sense that you need us as well. One of your friends just died and you're out in Mexico. You're running from your problems. That's what these past 10 years have been, haven't they. You're running from what happened on Yamatai, you're running from us." Jonah interrupted Sam's rant, trying a gentler approach.

In that moment, on a plane to somewhere in Mexico, the great archeologist, Lady Lara Croft burst into tears. "I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry" she cried, "I never wanted to hurt any of you. I knew I needed to continue my father's work, he was right about everything. I was one of the people who always ridiculed him for his theories, I needed to make things right. What I do is dangerous, I didn't want any of you getting involved. I mean, look what happened to Dr. Whitman, Alex, Grim and ….and …Roth."

"Lara we're your friends. We want you to be happy. I know that archeology and adventure are what make you happy and I want to be a part of that. You can't just expect me to abandon you because I may get hurt." Sam replied softly.

Reyes chose this time to make her statement, "Lara, I really appreciate you getting us off that island and back to my daughter, but you really are stupid." Lara looked up confused and Reyes continued, "I was angry about Roth's death, we all were, but he knew the dangers he chose to protect you. Why? He knew how you can inspire people. You're bravery, intelligence make people want to do something with their lives. In the states, I'm always seeing little kids at the playground running around pretending to be like you. Even my own daughter, she's studying to become an archeologist now. She's seen what you do on TV and heard stories from me and she was inspired. You're a freaking superhero to these kids. You don't need to protect anyone from danger, we can take care of ourselves, but you also can't shut people out. I know this is dangerous work, Lara, don't go it alone, you don't need to."

"You guys aren't going to give up are you?" Lara asked and the three shook their heads, "Well I guess I should start with how my mother died…" Lara caught up her friends on what was going on. No one had noticed that Winston had taken Zip out to "get something for lunch" or the proud smile on his face as he closed the door behind him.

 ** _The End_**

A/N Thank you everyone who read, reviewed, favorited and followed this. After playing the 2013 game I couldn't help but wonder what their reactions would be to Croft Manor blowing up in Underworld would be. I hope to write more going forward. 3


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